2015 Milford Winter Lights Festival

• Two Performances by Frozen Feet Theater
• 1920’s drinks
• Zumba audience warm up
• Mac and Chili Contest
• Spaghetti Dinner
• and more…

• Winter Lights Festival will have some changes in 2015, its seventh year, involving more of Milford but fewer days, says Mike Carson, festival founder and producer. The event will occupy a weekend rather than a week, and if the weather fails to cooperate, indoor events will prevail.

  “Milford is getting together to create atmosphere,” he says.

  History, music and fashion from the 1920s will suffuse the festival, beginning on Friday night, Jan. 23, at the Columns Museum, with a speakeasy style spaghetti dinner and movie — “Bugsy Malone,” in which children play gangsters. Waiters will dress in 1920s style, and participants will be expected to follow the secret protocol to gain entry.

  “It’ll be something like knocking three times and answering the question, ‘Who sent you?’ with the passwords, ‘Joe sent me,’” says Carson.

  Tickets for the event will benefit Pike County Historical Society, with admission for adults $25, for children, $15; reservations are required.

  In previous years cooking contests have been focused on either chili or macaroni and cheese, but this year both will compete on Saturday at the Dimmick Inn, concocted by both professional and amateur chefs. Sampling and judging will be 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 24.

  The event at 2 p.m. shifts to Anne Street Park skating rink, around which a Zumba warm-up will be led by Chris Seidel, a teacher at Jen Murphy’s Fitness Studio. Then Frozen Feet Theater performs “Ice Pops,” short ice dancing pieces with 1920s themes and music by Scott Joplin and George Gershwin. Local skating star Jordan Hartey returns and will perform afterward.

  During a brief intermission, the winners of the “Mac ‘n’ Chili Contest will be announced, followed by Frozen Feet Theater performing an ice-dancing piece to Nina Simone’s “Sinner Man: Run to the Rock,” using gigantic puppets, including a devil, from the Puppets for Puppeteers Cooperative.

  After a break to clear the ice, the rink will open to the public to skate from 3-5:30 p.m., and again from 6:30-8:30 p.m., when it will be lit by torchlights, including the opening torchlight ceremony. Music from the 1920s and a surrounding neighborhood full of old houses, many from the 19th Century, will provide “unique atmosphere,” Carson notes.

  Participating local restaurants will serve dinners in the 1920s milieu with ’20s style drink, entrée and dessert. At 8 p.m. “The Olde Dessert Shoppe,” at a yet to be determined location, will have dessert and music from “100 years of Jazz, 1915-2015,” by Tyler Williams and “In Your Face Big Band,” an 11-piece band from Delaware Valley High School (Donations requested).

  On Sunday, January 25, the zumba warm-up and ice show will run from 2 to 2:30 p.m., with zumba led by Felieria Pauling, from Jen Murphy’s Fitness, followed by Frozen Feet Theater ice dancing. The rink will open to the public from 2:45-5 p.m., and the Olde Dessert Shop will serve from 3-4 p.m., with music played by Tyler Williams and In Your Face Big Band. Restaurants will again provide 1920s fare for dinner. The festival ends with Skating by Torchlight from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

By Jessica Cohen
For the Pocono Record 
Posted Dec. 28, 2014 @ 6:37 pm